Meet IE Business School’s MBA Class Of 2020

Sverre Magnus Hagen

IE Business School

I’m creative and open, also impatient, bossy. I’m imperfect, but I want to change the world!“

Hometown: Oslo, Norway

Fun Fact About Yourself: When I was 9 years old, I bought a plot of land on Mars, over the internet.  It’s about the size of Nebraska. One day we should be able to visit it, right?!

Undergraduate School and Major: University of Oslo, Masters in Law

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Co-founder of Handleriet, an online grocer and Customer Experience Officer

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: Going from M&A lawyer to the founder of an online grocer wasn’t the most obvious career move. To be honest, I had to face a couple of awkward family dinners, but I have never regretted making the choice to become an entrepreneur.

Grocery isn’t like any other retail category. If I knew what I know now, I would have done many things differently in my business. Do you know how quickly bananas turn bad?! You’d be surprised.  It’s easy to get caught up in strategic plans and innovative features, but it’s important to know your product inside and out because that’s ultimately what will drive profits.

A particular highlight of my career was when we were awarded Best in Test of online grocers in a “mystic users” test by +140 of Norway’s largest and most important customer centers. It was a really nice achievement because it was customer experience that motivated us to start the business in the first place.

Likewise, it was an honor to be recognized by Retail Insider as one of the most innovative retail start-ups in the world, alongside Amazon and Walmart in the Digital Retail Innovations Report. That Digital Retail Innovations Report led to a lot of positive publicity for our business and the online application we had helped pioneer. The project had been risky and expensive, so it was inspiring to have that kind of recognition from industry experts, a sign that we were doing something truly innovative. It also gave a boost to our collaboration with TotalCtrl, a startup developing solutions to reduce food waste in the world.

What quality best describes the MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why? Openness to different opinions and a genuine curiosity of mind. On a daily basis, I am surprised by the various backgrounds and expertise represented in my class. Right at the start of the MBA, I realized my background wouldn’t set me apart because everyone is distinct – in my class, there is a range of experiences, from a former head of a banana plantation to rock stars and CEOs. Needless to say, the diversity at IE makes for incredibly stimulating classroom discussions.

Aside from your classmates, what was the key part of the MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? I probably would have the opportunity to learn the same hard-skills at many other business schools, but it is IE’s focus on people and soft-skills that sets the school apart from other programs I considered. This was important to me because an MBA is a huge investment. While hard-skills are more of a commodity that can be obtained even in online courses, an offline MBA is still the best environment to acquire soft-skills. For example, for me, speaking in public can still feel scary but I am learning to turn the negative energy into a positive force for good. It’s hard to quantify just how useful this skill will be moving forward.

IE Business School calls itself “An “MBA out of the ordinary.” How has IE’s curriculum and activities been out of the ordinary from what you expected or what you experienced in other educational institutions? There is an emphasis on what I would describe as our “blind spots as leaders” and this is one of the areas that sets IE Business School’s curriculum apart. How do you deal with the things you do not know, not knowing them? We must learn, as leaders, to be comfortable not being the expert on any particular topic, but instead being able to see the larger picture and supporting everyone around the table. IE builds our confidence in these kinds of situations.

What was the most challenging question you were asked during the admissions process? “Why an MBA at this point in your career?” The question demands self-reflection. In order to provide an answer in a convincing way, it also had to make sense to me on a personal level. I had to be sure I understood the “why” myself.

What do you see yourself doing in ten years? In ten years, I believe I will be supporting entrepreneurs in their efforts to commercialize exciting ideas that improve lives and also make positive returns to investors. I also plan on having a lot of fun and keeping in touch with my classmates from IE.

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